BOSTON — The University of New Hampshire hockey team had trouble holding leads last weekend. The Wildcats had little difficulty protecting this one.

They used a big second period to advance to the Hockey East championship game with a 3-1 semifinal win over Providence on Friday night at TD Garden.

Kevin Goumas scored twice in the second and defenseman Justin Agosta connected once as UNH reached the final for the first time since 2007.

Goumas's first goal was shorthanded and broke a scoreless deadlock. The senior forward's second came with 0.4 seconds left in the second period and made it 3-0.

“I'm just going out there and trying to make sure it's not my last game, and leave it all out on the ice,” Goumas said. “That's been on my mind the last week or so.”

Goumas has five goals in the last two games, including two shorties.

“He's determined not to have the season end,” said UNH coach Dick Umile. “It's great to see the puck go in for him.”

The Wildcats will meet defending champion UMass-Lowell tonight at 7 for the Hockey East title. UNH last captured the crown in 2003.

The River Hawks blanked Notre Dame, 4-0, in Friday's first semifinal.

The Wildcats outshot the Friars, 31-26, including 17-9 in the second period when they did all their scoring. Casey DeSmith finished with 25 saves.

“It's an opportunity to win a championship,” Umile said. “We need to win to go to the NCAA tournament. Our goal is to win a national championship, and the only way we can do that is to get into the NCAA tournament.”

The Wildcats couldn't score on their power play so they scored on Providence's when Goumas's solo rush down right wing off a neutral zone turnover resulted in a wraparound goal.

The senior forward went around PC defenseman Anthony Florentino, circled the net and beat goalie Jon Gillies to the other side at 7:05 of the second period.

“We talked about trying to make Gillies stay on the ground and move side to side,” Goumas said, “and I thought that was an opportunity to do that.”

“When Goumas scored the shorthanded goal I thought the game turned around at that point,” said PC coach Nate Leaman. “They won all the battles. I thought we played soft and didn't execute very well.”

Agosta made it 2-0 at 13:31 of the second when his shot from the right point appeared to deflect off a defender's stick and into the net.

Then with time running out in the second period, the Wildcats played beat the clock.

Goumas and Nick Sorkin broke into the zone on a 2-on-1 rush. Goumas backhanded a pass to Sorkin, who missed the net with his shot.

Goumas collected the rebound behind the cage, moved in front and banked a shot off the stick of PC's Steven Shamanski and into the net with less than a second remaining in the period.

“I didn't think we were moving our feet,” Leaman said. “I thought we were reaching for pucks. I don't want to take credit away from UNH because they played a good game. I just don't think we played our style of hockey.”

It was Goumas's fifth goal in the last five periods. Matt Willows assisted on the Wildcats' second and third goals.

“That was a pretty big goal,” Goumas said. “I knew time was running out. I wanted to try to get the puck as quick as I could to the net. That gave us some momentum.”

PC's Kevin Rooney scored early in the third period to make it 3-1 and give the Wildcats and their fans some anxious moments.

Still trailing by two goals, the Friars pulled Gillies for an extra skater with a little more than two minutes left in the third period to no avail.

“It's huge,” Willows said of the win. “You battle every year to get here. It feels great.”

The Wildcats outshot the Friars in a scoreless first period, 9-5, but didn't apply enough sustained pressure on Gillies despite the only two power plays of the period.

“It was a great win for us,” Umile said. “We felt good about our team after a tough series against Northeastern. The guys were excited to play. They showed great leadership and played very, very well.”